A pioneer in experimental documentary, Chick Strand is one of the most celebrated experimental filmmakers. The Tate Museum calls her masterpiece Soft Fiction “a remarkable work of collective representation. Each of the five women in the film collaborated with Strand to build the films rich and complex picture of female subjectivity blending poetic documentary with lyrical abstraction. It’s rare and open depiction of female sensuality was controversial when first shown but Soft Fiction is now celebrated as one of the defining films of the 1970s.” Our screening will also include her short Kristallnacht, an evocative and powerful abstract film dedicated the memory of Anne Frank.

Films:

• Kristallnacht (Chick Strand, US, 1979, 7 min., 16mm)
  
• Soft Fiction (Chick Strand, US, 1979, 54 min., 16mm)
  

Additional Programming:

• Handmade Films, March 30, 7 pm
  
• Subversion, April 1, 4 pm
  

About Whole Grain

The Tang Teaching Museum’s new series Whole Grain: Experiments in Film & Video explores classic and contemporary work in experimental film and video. This is the first of our three inaugural programs this spring, which are thematic and director-focused collections of canonical films that will serve as an introduction to experimental filmmaking practice. The themes for our other programs were Handmade Films (March 30) and Subversion (April 1). These films subvert, challenge, and play with classical Hollywood narrative and stylistic conventions.

Whole Grain is programmed by Sean Fuller, Store and Publications Manager, Tang Teaching Museum; Nicky Tavares, Visual and Digital Media Mellon Fellow, Skidmore College; and Tom Yoshikami, Educator for College and Public Programs, Tang Museum. This event is free and open to the public.